Boris Johnson today claimed funding for climate change and environment programmes in the capital is “at record levels” as City Hall re-announced a number of schemes to create “green-collar jobs” and fund London’s “transition a low carbon economy”
In a statement City Hall confirmed funding would continue for existing projects such as the Mayor’s RE:NEW energy efficiency programme for domestic properties and RE:FIT which helps public bodies improve the energy efficiency of their buildings.
Green campaigners had questioned the Mayor’s ability to continue the schemes after his “Stalingrad-like defence” of the capital failed to prevent the coalition slashing his development budget.
Having initially only secured funding for projects the London Development Agency was already committed to, the Mayor has sought to portray last month’s revised £388m settlement for development projects over a three year period as “good news” despite being forced to reduce funding for projects and merging London’s three promotional agencies into a single body.
In recent weeks City Hall has been re-announcing existing schemes, downplaying reduced budgets caused by the reduction in Government funding.
Of the £116.5m of funding confirmed for green projects today, just £16.5million will come from the LDA in 2011/12 with the balance provided by the private sector and the EU financed London Green Fund.
Claiming he had taken “a canny approach to the use of public funds”, the Mayor said the schemes would see London “transformed into a greener, cleaner world-leading low carbon city with new jobs and enterprises.”
However Green party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson claimed “months of delay and cutbacks have seriously compromised the Mayor’s ability to deliver on those grand promises he has repeated year after year.”
Mr Johnson called on the Mayor to “put his energies into making things happen instead of re-announcing the same projects.”
